


forty

by cassandrapentagasp



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8982634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandrapentagasp/pseuds/cassandrapentagasp
Summary: taako makes macaroons





	

**Author's Note:**

> here's, uh, something real self-indulgent for candlenights. happy holidays!

_One._

Candlenights Eve.Taako lay awake, eyes fixed unblinking on the ceiling of his new rooms at the bottom of the Bureau moon base.

_Two._ His mouth slightly open, the only sound in the room his own breathing, steady. _Three._ Steady.

Restlessness crept under his skin, wound around his bones, sharp and burning. _Four._ With a sigh, Taako stood up, slid his feet neatly into the extravagant slippers he kept next to his bed.

_Five._ This late at night, he knew the kitchens would be empty. _Six._ Taako had nothing else to offer up as Candlenights gifts.

He dressed quickly.Crossed the quad to the kitchens silently. _Seven._ Every other BoB member, save a few guards who paid him no mind, seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

As predicted, the kitchens were empty. _Eight._ A low fire was banked in the massive hearth, granting the room a low, warm glow. _Nine._

The room was freshly cleaned, every cooking implement, every ingredient, stored away in an orderly fashion. _Ten._ The head cook ran a tight ship.Taako could not have asked for a better kitchen. _Eleven._

He poked through the stored implements and ingredients, making careful mental note of where everything belonged before he moved any of it. _Twelve._ Everything he needed was there. _Thirteen._

Taako inhaled. _Fourteen._ Exhaled. _Fifteen._ Looked at his hands, carefully. _Sixteen._ Carefully.

_Seventeen._ By design, his wand remained in his rooms. _Eighteen._ The calluses and scars on his hands were mostly clearly from magic use, but there were other, older marks there. _Nineteen._ If one knew what they were looking for.

_Twenty._ An old, shiny burn mark between the upper and middle joints on his right middle finger. _Twenty-one._ A slice mark just above the webbing of his left thumb. _Twenty-two._ A spoon callus on the bottom knuckle of his right pointer finger.

_Twenty-three._ No one else knew, but Taako did, that these particular marks were acquired before Sizzle It Up with Taako.Before magic. _Twenty-four._ He touched each one carefully before taking a deep breath and dropping his hands to his sides.

Taako began by preheating the ovens. _Twenty-five._ The controls were unfamiliar to him, but he worked it out with ease.

_Twenty-six._ Next were the baking sheets.He found them quickly, reluctantly impressed by the BoB kitchens.Once they were prepared, he set them aside.

_Twenty-seven._ Finally, Taako began to collect all of the ingredients he would need for macaroons. _Twenty-eight._ He worked with nearly aggressive focus, so tuned into the labor that everything else was shut out.

Almond flour, measured precisely, manually.Confectioner’s sugar, measured precisely, manually.Combined into a bowl, mixed together.Taako took his time working the mixture through a sieve, slowly. _Twenty-nine._ Slowly.

Next, three eggs, chosen for their size.Cracked, yolks carefully split from whites and thrown away, dropped into a bowl.Cream of tartar.A pinch of salt.

_Thirty._ Taako stopped with his hand suspended over the bowl to throw the salt into the mixture, stopped for just a second. _Thirty-one._ And then let the salt go.

Beat the mixture together into a frothy consistency.Gradually added fine granulated sugar to the blend, beating it further as he did so.

_Thirty-two._ Folding the liquids and the dries together, cautiously. _Thirty-three._ Cautiously.Batter at the right consistency, Taako piped it out onto the baking sheets.Let them settle and firm up, watching closely, for a half an hour while he started preparing filling.

One flavor, he decided.Just one. _Thirty-four._

The uncooked macaroons no longer sticky to the touch, Taako checked the temperature of the ovens and, satisfied, slid the baking sheets on middle racks.

_Thirty-five._ Everything in the oven and the filling prepared, Taako had nothing left to do but wait.

_Thirty-six._ Night had well and truly fallen outside, the sky a velvety dark blue sprinkled with stars.Snow was beginning to fall.Taako watched it as he waited, silent. _Thirty-seven._ Silent.

The macaroons looked perfect.He pulled the cookies carefully off the baking sheets and stacked them together with the prepared filling. _Thirty-eight._

He put one gently in his mouth.Let it melt on his tongue.Savored the sweetness, the flavor of vanilla.They were, without a doubt, the best macaroons the wizard had ever made.

Taako closed his eyes, waiting. _Thirty-nine._ When he opened them, he sighed.Packed up the macaroons.Cleaned up.Walked back to his rooms.

_Forty._  

 

As Taako handed out his perfect macaroons the next night, no one noticed that his hands shook.


End file.
